Worried housing is for low-income residents
By Barb Pert Templeton
A majority of the members of the Algonac City Council approved the second reading of an amendment to “Community Development” adding a new Article IV, Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) Ordinance and moving forward with a housing project at the former Algonac Elementary School.
After a lengthy discussion at an Aug. 20 meeting, that included comments from the public, the developer and the council, the amendment passed 5-2 with council members Cathy Harris and Dale Williams casting no votes.
Mayor Rocky Gillis introduced the second reading of the amendment to Chapter 16 “Community Development” adding the PILOT Ordinance for the project. He said the $16 million project will be for those at or below 60% of the Housing and Urban Development median income amounts. He said that 60% of the AMI for one person is an annual income of $40,320, and 60% of the AMI for a family of four is an annual income of $57,540.
Developers plan to construct 25 senior apartments and 18 townhouses. The apartments will include 20 one-bedroom units, with rent at between $875 up to $1080 per month, four two-bedroom sites with rent between $1,035 and $1,296 monthly and a single one-bedroom unit for $335 a month.
For the townhouse plans, developers want to construct nine two-bedroom rentals with monthly rates of $997 to $1,296. In addition, they plan on nine more units with three-bedrooms each for $1,135 to $1,496 per month.
During the public comments portion of the recent meeting many shared strong feelings about their opposition to the housing plan if it were for low income or Section 8 eligible renters.
One man stepped up to speak and said he didn’t like the council “blowing $186,000” on the Algonac Elementary School purchase without even asking the taxpayers about it. (The city purchased the facility in Dec. 2023 after taking part in an auction.)
At first. he said it was to be a community center or place for the city’s youth and now it’s going to be turned into housing that will force the residents’ taxes to go up.
“Can we use our minds, reassess the situation and be ethical about it, maybe get the community input before just pissing away $186,000?” he added.
Developer addresses concerns
As the council began to discuss the issue several pointed out that the thought with the project was to provide housing for persons working in local service industries.
Gillis pointed out that while it’s called the low-income tax credit program the income level has to be $40,000, which he didn’t consider low income.
Joe Heaphy, president of Ethos Development Partners, stepped to the microphone and agreed it’s “unfortunate that’s it’s called the low-income tax credit program.”
Gillis asked if there was any way that the rents can end up being lower than what’s listed? He said there was speculation that renters might only end up paying 30 percent of the total monthly amount via a Section 8 program.
“I’m going to be completely transparent, if someone comes with a Section 8 voucher they cannot be turned away,” Heaphy said.
As members of the audience thanked him for his honesty and several mumbled “there it is” and said now the truth about the project was out, Gillis said a Section 8 voucher is always eligible for any housing in the community as it’s a federal law.
While the council reminded the audience that it was not the time for a back-and-forth discussion or commenting one person asked if the new housing could be used for a sanctuary city.
“This is not housing that can be provided legally to migrants or folks coming into the country,” Heaphy said “This is not public housing, this is a program created under Ronald Reagan to incentivize investment in affordable housing.”
He noted that there’s not a lot of affordable housing opportunities for people working jobs in many local communities. In fact, Heaphy said his firm has been approached by Royal Oak and Charlevoix to help them create affordable housing options for people who work in and want to live in those communities.
Councilwoman Dawn Davey said she would welcome someone providing a list of what they think the city can do to bring more businesses into the area.
“This city cannot sustain itself on restaurants and shops,” Davey said. “We need to have family centered, yearlong, sustainable businesses in here.”
“I understand that some people think this is going to be another dive building here, but that’s not what this is,” she added.
“So, if the term low income, which is not even the current term, is what’s turning everybody off, these are our own community people, these are people that work in our different local jobs,” Gillis said, also stating that they volunteer for community events and serve on boards in the city.
“They are people just like everybody else, I don’t know what word to put on it – rude, condensing, not in my backyard,” Councilman Michael Bembas said. “If these people can afford to pay this rent, who are we to be judging so harshly on somebody’s income?”
Councilmen offer thoughts
During the council comments portion of the agenda some officials addressed the residents’ concerns about the school property project.
“One thing about the school – we are keeping the gym and the cafeteria for a community center, rec center whatever you want to call it,” Bembas said. “The monies we get will keep that forever and maybe eventually we even hire somebody part-time to run activities out of there for the kids.”
Mayor Pro Tem Ray Martin said he wanted to thank everyone for their attention and input at the meeting. He said the city purchased Algonac Elementary School last November and said the property had been empty and decaying for seven years when the opportunity came up with just a couple weeks’ notice.
“When it was being bid on it could have been anybody anywhere in the world and the situation was if that bid was won by somebody anywhere in the world, we don’t know what could have happened, it could have sat for another seven, 10 or 14 years,” Martin said.
Gillis said he was pleased to see everyone at the meeting as well. He said several years ago the community was asked what area they wanted to see developed and most people picked doing something with the school property.
“We did buy it at auction for $185,000 because we did not want to sit any longer and watch what happened we wanted to take control and do something,” Gillis said.
The mayor said a beautiful building is being proposed and the city will make sure that’s what’s built.
Applications for the tax credit program are very competitive and the deadline to file one is Oct. 1 with awards expected in Jan. 2025. If the Algonac application is awarded construction will begin in 2026 with the project completed in 2027.
